Wobble Watch: Desperation Isn’t Enough

My fear:  the U.S., desperate for the appearance of a last-minute  diplomatic success, would sign up for Agreed Framework II at Beijing.  The reality:  the North Koreans and the Americans are both acting as if they expect the other to give more, with the North Koreans enjoying a clear advantage in chutzpah:

North Korea defiantly declared itself a nuclear power Monday at the start of the first full international arms talks since its nuclear test and threatened to increase its nuclear deterrent if its demands were not met.

Reiterating those demands in its opening speech, the North said the Reiterating those demands in its opening speech, the North said the United Nations must lift the sanctions imposed on the communist nation for its Oct. 9 nuclear test. It also said the United States must remove the financial restrictions that led the North to break off the six-nation nuclear negotiations 13 months ago. 

The North also said it wants a nuclear reactor constructed for it and help covering its energy needs until the reactor is completed, according to a summary of the speech released by one of the delegations involved. Five nations are trying to persuade the North to abandon nuclear weapons — the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

The North said that now that it is a nuclear power, it should be treated on equal footing with the U.S. It warned that if its demands aren’t met, it would increase its nuclear deterrent, according to the summary.

Yonhap has more.  Extra fun:  North Korea is calling for the United States to denuclearize, too(!), meaning, they clearly don’t want a deal as much as they want to throw red meat to the red guards in the South.  This isn’t particularly good news — the North Koreans won’t do things the easy way, which we’ve known all along —  but at least isn’t bad news:  the U.S. doesn’t sound  ready to  cave, although the North’s behavior is too brazen to even give us an opening to do that.  Here’s  Chris Hill:

“The supply of our patience may have exceeded the international demand for that patience, and we should be a little less patient and pick up the pace and work faster,” Hill told reporters Monday.

This would have been a great thing to have said in 2004.  Follow the links to see China’s absolutely meaningless calls for everyone to be flexible.  As before, North Korea is a hard-liner’s best friend, but never underestimate America’s capacity to go wobbly and defeat itself.  When it comes to North Korea, we’ve had plenty of practice.